Emergency pipeline check snarls Escondido traffic

ESCONDIDO  An emergency gas pipeline check being conducted by SDG&E has increased traffic congestion on a portion of south Escondido’s already-busy Bear Valley Parkway, home to three schools with their thousands of arriving and departing students.

One lane of southbound Bear Valley has been closed between Mary Lane and San Pasqual Road while crews have been digging into pavement so they can inspect the 16-inch steel pipeline, San Diego Gas & Electric officials said.

The unplanned inspection became necessary when a special sensor known as a “smart pig” recently detected possible problems with the 29-mile pipeline, which transports high-pressure gas from Rainbow to Lake Hodges.

The work began Thursday and is scheduled to conclude today.

While the problems detected by the sensor could have been leaks, crews determined after digging down to the pipe that they were simply corrosion, Doug Schneider, SDG&E’s director of pipeline integrity, said Monday.

“It was really a false positive, but safety is our priority,” Schneider said. “The pipe’s in good condition.”

He said crews recoated the line and conducted other maintenance that could only happen with the pipe exposed.

Schneider said the sensor also found problems on parts of the pipeline farther north, and crews have conducted additional excavation in those areas. He said that work has been less disruptive because those areas are more rural.

The work on Bear Valley Parkway snarled traffic at three schools in the area — San Pasqual High, Bear Valley Middle and L.R. Green Elementary.

Officials at the middle school said they’ve received numerous complaints from parents and staff about the congestion. Traffic has been particularly bad during the morning drop-off and afternoon pickup times.

Congestion has been less severe at the high school because classes begin earlier, at 7:30 a.m. Most students arrive before the excavation work begins, Principal Tom McCoy said.

“We start so early that we’ve been OK,” McCoy said. “And the afternoons haven’t been too bad.”

Schneider said SDG&E crews have been trying to go as quickly as possible because the work they’re doing requires them to lower the gas pressure in the pipeline, decreasing efficiency.

This was the first time a smart pig sensor has been used on the pipeline, which was installed in 1949. The pipeline was retrofitted in 2011 and 2012 to allow such a detection system to work, he said.